Lord Young of Cookham: My Lords, the co-pilot is in charge of this group of amendments. I am grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken to this group and made the case for seeking to expand the scope of Clause 10 beyond the destinations that are so far defined in it.
The amendments of the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington—Amendments 21, 23 and 28—seek to expand the scope of Clause 10, so that privately owned large car park operators will also be required to ensure provision of charge points at their premises. A number of noble Lords and Baronesses have spoken in support of that group of amendments. It is important that we carefully consider which location should be captured in Clause 10. As my noble friend highlighted in Committee, we believe that Government should regulate only where there is a specific need and not where we are confident that market forces will deliver the necessary infrastructure to meet the needs of EV drivers. I seek to reassure noble Lords by giving examples of what is now happening in the private sector.
First, perhaps I can deal with my noble friend’s comment about the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. I think it is providing a number of spaces and that the Government are taking the initiative in encouraging it to do better. Indeed, through the Government’s on-street residential scheme, we have just provided funding for 50 additional lamp post charge points to be installed. I hope that is of some reassurance to my noble friend. But we are already seeing the private sector taking the lead, with charge points going in at destinations, including car parks and supermarkets, as these locations begin to appreciate the advantages that offering charging facilities will ultimately have in attracting the growing number of EV drivers to their shops or to use their services. For example, NCP, one of the largest car park operators in the UK, already offers charge points at some of its car parks and is investing to grow the number of sites offering this facility.
Electrical vehicle charging points have been installed in car parks at Heathrow Airport and around 500 charge  point connectors have been installed in the UK in the last 30 days. The Office for Low Emission Vehicles has also worked closely with the British Parking Association to develop guidance for its members on investing in and installing charging infrastructure.
As my noble friend mentioned in Committee, we are also aware of a number of supermarkets and shopping centres that have installed charge points, including Asda, which already has charging facilities at more than 100 of its stores. My noble friend’s ministerial colleagues meet regularly with the charge point industry and we are confident of the progress being made in the retail space.
My noble friend also highlighted in Committee that the Government already offer a variety of grant schemes and policy measures to support the installation of charge points in a range of locations. Through government grant schemes such as the train station scheme, Plugged-in Places and the public sector estate scheme, more than 7,000 charge points have been funded in a wide range of locations, including leisure centres, libraries, park and rides, and train station car parks. We have also already committed to providing greater emphasis on the delivery of charge points at train stations as part of the rail franchising process. For private facilities, we also offer grant funding through our Workplace Charging Scheme to support the installation of charge points for employees and fleets. To date, more than 1,000 sockets have been installed in more than 300 companies since the scheme launched in November 2016. Then, there is the new £400 million electric vehicle charging infrastructure investment fund, which will support the installation of charge points across the UK, which could include privately owned car parks.
We heard while debating the previous group of amendments that the Government’s national policy planning framework has just been consulted on and will continue to be an important tool in leveraging infrastructure and future-proofing new developments. When developing local plans, it sets out that local authorities fully consider the inclusion of charge point infrastructure in new developments.
The powers we are seeking in Clause 10 would allow the Government to require more charge points at motorway service areas and large fuel retailers to meet the growing demand for them. In addition to these powers, the proposed NPPF envisages that applications for developments should be designed to enable charging of plug-in and other low-emission vehicles in safe, accessible and convenient locations.